Letter from the Editor

BlazeVOX [books] · 25th Anniversary

Dear Readers, Writers, and Friends,

On October 15, 2025, BlazeVOX [books] celebrates its 25th Anniversary, a Silver milestone that invites both reflection and aspiration. What began in 2000 as a modest online journal, hand-coded on borrowed computers, has grown into a thriving independent press that has published hundreds of books and shared the voices of more than a thousand writers from around the world.

When BlazeVOX first opened its digital doors, we had no blueprint for the future, only a belief in the transformative power of language, and a commitment to publish work that was daring, innovative, and necessary. Twenty-five years later, that mission still guides us. We have embraced change not as disruption but as opportunity: from early experiments with print-on-demand to free digital editions, from journals to blogs to multimedia projects, always searching for new ways to bring words into the world.

The heart of BlazeVOX, however, has never been technology. It has been community. We are here because of the poets and storytellers who entrusted us with their manuscripts, the readers who welcomed our books into their lives, the scholars and students who carried our titles into classrooms, and the friends who sustained us with encouragement. Together, we have built not just a press, but a living conversation that stretches across geographies, generations, and genres.

Anniversaries are not only for looking back, they are also for imagining forward. As BlazeVOX steps into its next quarter-century, our work remains unfinished, as it should. There will always be new voices to discover, new boundaries to test, and new ways to connect readers with the transformative beauty of literature. We remain committed to cultivating cultural vitality, amplifying visionary voices, and sustaining the fragile but essential space where art thrives beyond market demands.

To everyone who has been part of this journey: thank you. BlazeVOX belongs to you as much as it belongs to us. Hurray for the past twenty-five years, and here’s to the daring adventures ahead.

With gratitude and hope,
Geoffrey Gatza
Editor & Publisher
BlazeVOX [books]

BlazeVOX [books] at Twenty-Five: A Silver Anniversary Reflection

On October 15, 2025, BlazeVOX [books] celebrates its Silver Anniversary, twenty-five years of publishing endeavors devoted to poetry, fiction, and the many intersections of innovative literature. This milestone is not simply an occasion to look back on the accomplishments of a small press; it is also a celebration of what independent publishing makes possible: a sustained commitment to voices, visions, and experiments that enlarge the space of contemporary writing.

From a Student Project to a Literary Vanguard

The story of BlazeVOX begins modestly in 1999, when it emerged as a college project: a student-run online poetry journal at Daemen University in Amherst, New York. With limited resources but limitless ambition, it sought to provide a space for contemporary poetry in the newly expanding digital landscape. By Fall 2000, BlazeVOX: an online journal of voice formally launched, establishing itself as an enduring presence in the world of online literary publishing. That journal, still active today, has remained the beating heart of BlazeVOX, presenting new writing, visual experiments, and cross-genre work from across the globe.

The Leap into Print

In 2005, BlazeVOX [books] expanded from the digital page to print, embracing the then-new technologies of print-on-demand publishing. This innovation allowed the press to take risks and publish works that traditional publishers might overlook. The first titles included books by Kazim Ali and Amy King, authors who would go on to make significant contributions to contemporary poetry. Their inclusion set the tone for what was to come: a catalog rooted in artistic daring, visionary thinking, and an embrace of writing that challenges conventions.

Building a Catalog and a Community

Over twenty-five years, BlazeVOX has published hundreds of books and featured more than a thousand writers in its journal. The press has become a home for literary luminaries such as Bill Berkson, Anne Waldman, Clayton Eshleman, Lee Ann Brown, Tom Clark, Ray Federman, Barbara Henning, Gloria Frym, Ron Silliman, Maureen Owen, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Steve McCaffery, among many others. Alongside these established figures, BlazeVOX has continually fostered the work of emerging writers, ensuring that its catalog reflects a living conversation between generations, traditions, and avant-garde tendencies.

This balance of continuity and discovery is at the core of BlazeVOX’s ethos. The press has never been driven by commercial trends; instead, it has pursued a simple but radical mission: to publish work of the highest artistic caliber regardless of market viability. By doing so, BlazeVOX has not only supported individual authors but also enriched the broader cultural discourse, providing texts that circulate in classrooms, libraries, and the wider public sphere.

Innovation as Tradition

Innovation has been the constant thread in BlazeVOX’s history. From hand-coded HTML pages in its earliest days to the adoption of print-on-demand technology, digital distribution, and multimedia experiments such as online author recordings and podcasts, the press has embraced new tools as they became available. This willingness to adapt has allowed BlazeVOX to remain at the forefront of independent publishing, never bound to a single format but always attentive to how literature might find new life in new media.

The biannual BlazeVOX Journal exemplifies this spirit. Each issue brings together poetry, fiction, text art, essays, and visual works, often blurring the lines between forms. Its recent volumes, BlazeVOX24 Spring 2024 and BlazeVOX25 Spring 2025, demonstrate the press’s ongoing vitality and its refusal to settle into predictability. The journal remains a laboratory of language, continuing the experimental impulse that animated BlazeVOX from the very beginning.

Mission and Vision

At the heart of BlazeVOX lies its mission: “to amplify the voices of today’s most visionary writers, from celebrated senior poets to daring emerging talents… to cultivate cultural vitality, foster regional achievement, and curate a catalog that offers both continuity and space for experimentation.” This guiding statement articulates what BlazeVOX has always done, publishing the daring, the innovative, the necessary. Through its titles, the press affirms a belief in the transformative power of language and the importance of maintaining spaces where literature may thrive on its own terms.

Looking Forward from the Silver Anniversary

A twenty-fifth anniversary is both a culmination and a beginning. It is an opportunity to honor the path already traveled, and it is an invitation to imagine what comes next. For BlazeVOX, the journey from a student project to a respected independent publisher is a testament to persistence, adaptability, and above all, devotion to the art of writing.

As BlazeVOX enters its next quarter-century, it remains committed to the spirit of risk and exploration that has always defined its work. With each new book, each issue of the journal, each collaboration between author, reader, and publisher, BlazeVOX continues to build a literary community grounded in experimentation, inclusivity, and vision.

Hurray for the journey so far, and here’s to the next twenty-five years.